![]() The bell is an arguably integral component of community sound, because unlike most instruments, it is seldom for a private audience. They have been rung in ritual and right of passage for eons. They have been suspended in churches, clock towers, Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. They have been hung from the necks of Bedouin goats and strung around the ankles of Indian dancers. Bells have been rung in celebration, in a calling toward, in mourning, in war and in warning. The history of the bell is a long one, tracing back millennia before Christ. “But who will ring the bell? And what for?” Yamamoto San asked in his most delicate and wondering tone. As he talks about the deep relationship to the wood (a term used by each person with whom I spoke), he pauses and inquires if he might ask me a question. It is then fitting that he finds himself now in the forests of North Idaho with a collection of students and international teachers, building a bell tower. (Kathy Plonka/The Spokesman-Review) Buy a print of this photo Woodworkers from around the United States and Japanese timber framer Kohei Yamamoto, right, are building a beautiful wooden bell tower to house a new bell sculpted by artist Mark Kubiak in Sandpoint on Friday, June 16, 2023. He learned how to restore shrines and temples, where bells have rung through mountains and villages for perhaps a thousand years or more. Trained in the traditional art of Japanese timber framing, he spent a decade apprenticing, first in the fine art of furniture-making and then timber framing. Yamamoto bears the humble titles of First Class Architect and First Class Carpenter. As we speak, his hands fold together before him as if devoid of a tool to grasp, they need other engagement. His dark eyes settle with understanding as he resolves a calculation or an angle. Yamamoto, or Yama San as he is known to the carpenters here, wears a Patagonia pullover, his hair tied back loosely, and a perpetual expression of genuine curiosity and inquiry. They fall to the ground in a silent pile and perfume the air with the rousing scent of fir.Īmid the workers, Kohei Yamamoto leans over a board taking measurements with a small triangle. Occasionally, a grinder is heard as a blade is reshaped before it is plunged into, then drug across the tender meat of a log to peel away curls of wood. These are not the power tools of a weekend project, but the sharpened blades and worn handles of tools made by timber framers. ![]() The forest is filled with the gentle knocking, thumping and humming of woodwork. The third is smooth and round, being sanded with the kind of care one might expect from a sculptor. The middle log is losing these as tools scrape away geometric corners. The foremost log still has the sharp edges of blade cutting. Huge logs are suspended, a warm fleshy hue to them as they are shaped in different stages. In the cool morning air, dappled sunlight filters through the boughs of towering cedars and onto the yard where two dozen carpenters are working.
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